Vulnarable Teesside youngsters have poured out their hearts telling agonising stories of how sexual abuse has ruined their lives.

Their harrowing accounts of life as 16-year-olds on the streets of Teesside, recorded on a DVD, rocked a Middlesbrough conference.

Professionals who spend their working lives seeking to give the youngsters a better future sat silently as the girls told how life could have been better - if someone had stepped in.

One told how she was trapped into prostitution to pay for her boyfriend's drugs, another was abused then thrown out on the streets while a third was so desperate to be loved she fell for the lies of a middle-aged man who claimed he loved her like a dad but only wanted sex.

The audience listened intently as the first teenager - pregnant at just 15 - told her story.

"It was at the Bon Lea on Yarm Lane and I was scared. It was horrible people in cars and they made me feel dirty.

"You can tell there's something wrong with them, they're weirdos.

"If I hadn't been abused in childhood I wouldn't have done it.

"My dad thumped me and sent me shoplifting bottles of whisky at just seven. They should have known it was him because if it was for me, it would have been lipgloss and makeup wouldn't it?

"They saw the black eyes and the bruises, they should have known.

"I was sexually abused by my dad, my stepdad and my uncle. I should have been in foster care, I wanted to be.

"If it hadn't happened like that I would have had a totally different life. I would have had a good life if someone had changed it for me."

Another, who turned to prostitution to pay for her boyfriend's heroin, said: "The police have a nasty attitude and just tell you to move on because you're 16 or 17.

"You tell the men it's #20 with a condom, #25 without. You feel scruffy because you don't know what you've got. You go home to get a shower and it makes you feel better. I just want to feel safe."

A third was left on the streets when her mother chose her step-dad over her and threw her out when she was just 16.

She said: "I was on the streets for a week, then I was in a B&B where my life started going downhill. People there, even the staff, were on heroin. It was the wrong place to put me. I had no family, no friends, no money, no nothing.

"I went on the beat so men could pay for sex. I was petrified.

"I didn't know the man from Adam, he could have been a murderer or a rapist, but at the time I didn't care because no one was there for me.

"I just wanted someone to look after me and there was this man in his 50s who would buy me food and clothes like a dad. But he wasn't, he was deceiving me, he wanted to make love to me."

This week's conference was to launch a new preventative scheme for young people at risk of sexual exploitation.

It was told homeless youngsters are being put at risk in B&Bs run by sex abusers.

They are "unsafe and inappropriate placements for youngsters," said Lynne Cardwell, deputy manager of Barnardo's pioneering SECOS project which helps youngsters off the streets.

"We know of several B&Bs run by people who are in sex exploitation relationships.

"The people who run them have never been convicted of any offence, so can manoeuvre into a position of trust and operate with impunity."

But she said, Barnardo's grassroots workers know the men's history and can warn against youngsters being put there.

One of the highest risk factors for youngsters ending up in prostitution, was going missing from home.

Each month on average, 21 youngsters go missing in Middlesbrough and 22 in Stockton.

Barnardo's chief researcher Sara Scott said she found the work of the children's charity really did make a difference. She said persistent contact and the support of workers over the last decade had led to a 75% reduction in the level of risk with 34% of the youngsters no longer involved in sexual exploitation.

"These young people present major challenges to services attempting to intervene in their lives.

"Most do not recognise their own exploitation - particularly in the initial stages of their involvement. They are extremely needy for attention, love and a sense of belonging which their abusers supply."

Invisible Lives, Strong Voices, DVD made for the SECOS Prevent and Protect conference.>